By Mark Campbell

Larry Hamilton (MBA’04) may not have spent much time at Dalhousie during the four years he studied for his MBA, but he feels a strong kinship with the university.

Hamilton is one of several hundred Bank of Montreal employees across Canada who earned their degree through a ten-year partnership between the financial institution and Dalhousie. Every three months, he and his class of ’04 colleagues gathered at the bank’s Institute for Learning (IFL) for a week of intensive studies with Dalhousie professors.

“The IFL is a world-class training facility with classrooms and a presentation hall,” says Hamilton, a Talent Acquisition Partner, Personal & Commercial Canada, with BMO Talent Management. “But it also has a gym, a bar, a social centre and the professors would join us for social activities like karaoke after hours.”

“They were also very supportive of us as we balance full-time work with our studies, so we felt a very strong connection to Dalhousie, even though we only spent the final week of our studies on campus. And we decided as a class that we should give something back to the university.”

Taking advantage of a BMO matching grant program, Hamilton and his classmates collected funds and started a scholarship. Launched in 2004, the BMO Financial Group MBA Scholarship provides financial assistance to mature students returning to Dalhousie full time to complete an MBA in financial services.

“The idea came from Carol Fee, who’s now a Senior Specialist in Operational Effectiveness at our BC & Yukon Divisional Office,” says Hamilton. “We knew previous classes had made a donation of artwork to the IFL as a thank you for hosting them. We thought this would be a great way to say thank you to Dalhousie.”

Many of Hamilton’s classmates have continued to contribute to the scholarship over the years, and that has inspired him to undertake a 10th-anniversary drive to refresh the fund. “We’re the only class from this partnership that has held a reunion every year. Since we’re holding it at Dalhousie this year, we thought it was a great opportunity to renew the scholarship and the bond we share as classmates.”

Hamilton hopes the scholarship provides benefits for financial services students for years to come.

“We were fortunate in that BMO paid for our MBA. By creating this scholarship, we wanted to give a new generation the opportunity to advance their education and their career.”